B is for Brazil! Twitter introduces #ENG hashflag for the 2014 World Cup

To mark the big football occasion, Twitter has introduced hashflags, a popular feature from the 2010 World Cup, enabling Twitter users to embed national flag emoticons into their Tweets.

Shakira has been Tweeting her support for her favourite teams as they prepare to kick off in a matter of hours now.

32 countries are competing in this year’s World Cup and all of them, bar one (Iran) have official team Twitter accounts although three Iranian players are on Twitter so in actual fact every nation is represented and ready to share all the highs, lows and as-it-happens photos and goals!

In case you’re wondering which England player has the most Twitter followers, it’s Wayne Rooney with around 9 million, although that figure pales somewhat compared to Cristiano Ronaldo who tops the lot with 26.6 million followers.

Twitter predicts 90% of UK users will be watching the World Cup – not least on Saturday 14 June at 9pm when they kick off their match against Italy.

Fans can follow the team’s performance through the #ENG or #3Lions hashtags, and the official general World Cup hashtags are #WorldCup or #WorldCup2014.